A Door-Stopper Worth Reading: Sleeping Beauties

🇬🇧 It seems like a normal morning in the town of Dooling but an international crisis started: No woman who falls asleep is able to wake up again. Instead, she is webbed into a white cocoon-like shape. This disease spreads across the whole world and scientists are baffled. While that sets the clock ticking on every woman in the world, there is one woman who seems to be immune. She calls herself Evie and claims that she has to stay alive for the next few days otherwise none of the women will be able to return.

The most important aspect to keep in mind, regarding "Sleeping Beauties" is that it is over 900 pages long. It has almost as many main characters as it has pages. The book is told through chapters which are once more split into further sub-chapters and change their narrator each time. While there are more prominent figures, such as Clint, Lila, and Frank. There are some reoccurring faces but also characters that only appear for a chapter and then are gone again. Furthermore, some characters are introduced during the last third of the book. Overall, keeping track of all of them is impossible and even after 800 pages I kept mixing up people. After listening to the story of about six different people, and suddenly there was Frank again it had taken a brief "who was he again?" to get the details right.

However, I am going to argue that the length is not the downfall of this novel. In fact, it works in its favour. The story does not feel rushed because the authors had time to develop their plot points and let them roll out in their own pace. At the same time, it doesn't drag either. There is always something happening, and once the story picks up the pace feels natural. While reading, I got the feeling that the Kings simply wrote the story they wanted to write in as much or as little detail as they wanted to and in the end it reached that length. It doesn't feel like there are an editor meddling in the background saying "reduce this by 100 pages" or "this needs 100 more pages".

"Sleeping Beauties" has jokingly been called a door-stopper but it is a door stopper that kept me hooked throughout all those pages. My German copy had 950 pages of plot, which is a L O T but it did not feel like 950 pages of plot and didn't drag. In fact, it was one of the few books, I decided to pick up on the weekend as well and read on and on and on to learn how all of this is going to unravel.

When I say "I didn't want to put this book down while reading" and refer to a 400 page book it already says much, but what would it say, when I make the same statement about a book that is almost 1000 pages long? Because it can be applied to "Sleeping Beauties."

The only part I struggled with was the message of the book. Gun-violence, police corruption, equal rights, homophobia, and even Trump are mentioned in it. They are all addressed but not by much. The main theme that appears is that women deserve a free choice without the interference of any men in any form. At the same time, I felt that the message was too subtile. Now, I can hear some Dudebros on Goodreads disagreeing with that who felt like they had been hit by a brick. However, at first I wasn't even sure if it was intentionally politic in the feminist area or if it just happened to be in there because that's the plot. At the same time, I wasn't sure if that is the best modern feminist idea to put into a novel. All men are evil and all women are good, is a trope that has appeared all over in media before. Even if "Sleeping Beauties" divergens from the path by including some inherently good as well as evil people in both sexes.

However, when all is said. "Sleeping Beauties" is a good read that mixes genres through. It is a bit political, it has touches of Sci-Fi without losing its touch with reality. The fantasy element is seamlessly and naturally woven into reality. This leads to a believable story, and I had moments in which I wondered what I'd do, if such a plague would happen today. The only reason why I deduct one flower is because a) it's such a big book, I wouldn't read it again b) the ending wasn't what I felt it could have been. Still, "Sleeping Beauties" kept me hooked and made me pick up a literally heavy read when I had spare time.

Furthermore, none of the action, humour, and plot was lost in translation. But you can find this review in German below.